GENEVA (IPS): The defeat of the Islamist State in Middle East and North African battlefields is now a reality. The terrorist group — which brought bereavement to the populations of the Arab region — has been defeated militarily in Iraq and in Syria.

Mosul, Raqqa, Tikrit and Ramadi — once considered as IS bastions in the Middle East — are now liberated and an era of brutality, cruelty and violence has come to an end. Although off-shoot factions still exist in countries such as Libya, Yemen, Egypt and in small pockets of Syria, the military defeat of IS marks a new era for Arab countries in their endeavours to rebuild societies ravaged by violence and armed conflict. Nonetheless, the “real work” to defeat IS and its heinous ideology lies in de-radicalizing returning militants and addressing the root-causes that initially provided fertile ground to the rise of radicalism.

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